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The Benefits of Being a Girl’s Girl

As a very social person, friendship has always been incredibly important to me. From the age of 3 when I made my first best friend, to the age of 23 where I still have that very same best friend, I have always valued the relationships with (some of) my friends as highly as the relationship with my family.

Sorry, Mom.

Although I’ve always had a large group of party friends friends in high school and at university that’s been made up of both girls and guys, my strongest and most important friendships have been with girls. It’s my girlfriends that I’ve always considered family, and they are the ones who have been there since the beginning.

While I do fully support female-male friendships, I unfortunately have a hard time supporting girls who claim they have no female friends because “it’s too much drama” and that they just “get along better with guys.”

Yes, there may be some girls who genuinely do relate much better to guys, but this wide-spread attitude among young women is hurting our progress as a sex.

How can we fight for gender equality when we can’t stop fighting with each other? Or should I say, how can we fight for gender equality when we can’t stop thinking that we fight with each other?

In my experience, most girls do get along much better with other girls. However, in a world where The Real Housewives of… Every City are praised for their female-female cat fights, explosive drama, and constant competition, we can be quick to convince ourselves that relationships with other women will only result in trouble.

Unfortunately, this means we often end up disregarding the importance of having a strong support system of girlfriends.

And from one girl to another, that is a huge mistake.

The Benefits of Being a Girl’s Girl

1. Emotional Support

Having a strong group of good girlfriends means that you have a number of people who are ready to delve into your personal life with you at the click of an iMessage.

Unlike guys who don’t know what it feels like to PMS, have your period, mess up your liquid eyeliner, or hit the glass ceiling, and unlike your mom who probably still puts “Love, Mom” at the end of every iMessage, your girlfriends totally feel ya.

They understand everything you’re going through and they genuinely care about everything you’re going through because well, it’s scientifically proven that girls rule boys drool girls have stronger emotional intelligence than guys (look it up).

Who else would spend hours helping you craft the perfect passive-aggressive text to your boyfriend because he liked some skinny girl’s bikini pic on Instagram?

2. You’re Growing Up Together

In my opinion, the best part of having girlfriends is that you are growing up together and learning together.

Other women that you’re close with may not always be the same age as you (i.e. your mom) so they don’t have the same grasp on what you’re going through.

With your girlfriends, you grew up in the same era, so you understand what it’s like to be a young female in the world today. You are all navigating the world together at the same age and time, and that creates an incredibly strong and unique bond between you all.

You’re all making mistakes together, and learning from each others’ mistakes along the way.

Because nothing says “sisterhood” like talking sh*t about the assholes you all dated in high school.

3. It Empowers Us

As I touched on above, one of the most important reasons to have girlfriends is that it is empowering to women as a gender.

How can we expect men to respect us if we don’t respect each other enough to even want to spend time with one another?

Historically, cultures that have been/are oppressed (and I’m not necessarily saying that women have been as oppressed as other groups) ban together to get through the tough times and help each other to overcome their challenges.

However, it seems that the latest trend is for women to claim they hate having these female-female friendships, which is buying into the female stereotype that all women are “dramatic” or “trouble.” We will never overcome these stereotypes if we keep telling the world that they are accurate.

Do you ever hear men claiming they hate male-male friendships? #BroProblems

Women need girlfriends because we need to learn to love, respect, and empower each other.

And there is no better way to learn that than with the women you already love, respect and want to empower.

Oh, and to all the girls out there claiming they aren’t friends with women because it’s all “drama”… NEWSFLASH: you are a girl. #StopHatin’

The Benefits of Being a Girl’s Girl was last modified: May 1st, 2015 by Lauren Meisner

Lauren is an energetic twenty-something originally from the Greater Toronto Area. With an itch for independence, Lauren moved across the country to Halifax, Nova Scotia for university, pursuing a degree in both acting and neuroscience. When she isn’t triple filtering her Instagram posts, you can find her hiking, vacationing, writing blog posts, watching the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and playing with every dog that crosses her path.